Iraq Al-Amir
Iraq Al-Amir is within the municipality of Amman in the Jordan Valley. Located about 15 km southwest of the town of Wadi Al-Seer, it has a population of about 6,000 people. Sandwiched in between rolling hills and valleys, the village of Iraq Al-Amir is just 45 minutes’ drive from Amman.
Iraq Al-Amir is a perfect example of beautiful rural Jordan that is home to lush green slopes and fig-trees. Iraq Al-Amir is situated on the Jordan (hiking) Trail and is a place where Iraq al-Amir Women Cooperative Society aims to make women financially independent and to raise their standard of living.
The magnificent remains of Hyrcanus’ unfinished mansion, Qasr al-’Abd (palace of the [royal] servant), now stand encircled by cultivated land where once the waters of the moat would have mirrored the walls. The dam is still visible at the south-western end. The family’s Ptolemaic links were a liability when the new Seleucid king, Antiochus IV began to extend his kingdom southwards around 168 BC. To avoid a worse fate, Hyrcanus ‘slew himself with his own hand; and Antiochus seized all his substance’.